Category Archives: Earning More

How to Negotiate For An Increase In Your Salary as an Allied Health Professional

Thanks to The Financial Mechanic for these tips on how to negotiate salary!

It is that time of year for your annual review. Asking for a *well-deserved* raise as an allied health professional may seem pretty daunting, no matter if you’re a new grad or have been in the profession for decades. Or you may be applying for a job, and discussing salary during the interview seems very off-putting.

When I started listening to ChooseFI, I listened to Episode 211: How To Negotiate Salary Without Burning Bridges with the Financial Mechanic. This episode blew my mind, and I listen to it before every annual review and every new allied health job interview to prepare.

The Financial Mechanic believes that negotiation is something that EVERYONE should do, if not before you accept the job, as you are working and need to ask for a raise. But if you can negotiate prior to your start date, you have a greater advantage, as it’s easier to do this before you officially become an employee of the company. It is much easier to negotiate during the hiring process than when you are an employee at the company.

The Financial Mechanic’s article, 7 Tips for Negotiating – How I Doubled My Salary in Two Years, provides awesome ways to feel more comfortable and prepare to negotiate for higher salary. And I believe that these tips are even more pertinent to allied health professions! Here are the 7 tips she goes over in her article:

1.  Put off taking salary in the early stages

Wait to discuss numbers until they have already given you an offer. You want the company to want YOU as an employee before you start negotiating. Give them a chance to learn more about you and the skills you can offer them, and those skills will help to negotiate the salary.

If they do ask about what salary you are looking for, try to steer clear with a response such as “I need to know more about the responsibilities of the role before I feel comfortable talking salary.”1 This not only will help to stay away from the topic, but it will also show that you are serious about the job itself.

2.  Do your research to know your worth

Understanding how much you are worth will help you feel more confident during the negotiation process. Research what the typical median salary is for your profession with your years of experience in your area. The median salary also varies by state, so someone living in California as an OT will be making much more than an OT in South Dakota.2 By doing research beforehand, you will have an idea of what you are looking for, and you can confidently back up your statement with data.

Don’t fall into the trap of undervaluing your skills. As allied health professionals, we tend to get “Imposter Syndrome” and sometimes feel that we are frauds in our own workspace. But even if you are treating another post-op knee replacement for the thousandth time, it is your patient’s FIRST time, so you have a lot more knowledge than you give yourself credit for!

This being said, list out your accomplishments, any extra certificates you earned, any continuing education courses that you have taken, that will make you stand out of the crowd. Then add more to the number you have chosen, because all this extra stuff makes you awesome!

3.  Remember that you are not the only one negotiating

The company is looking for someone to fill this role, and the whole hiring process is very time consuming. Or your current company has already invested in your for a number of years, and wants to continue to keep you as a productive member of their team.

You both have similar goals. You want the job, and they want to hire you for the job. Think of negotiation as more of a collaboration!

4.       Ask for their number before revealing yours

The Financial Mechanic still suggests that you put off the question of salary for as long as you possibly can. But if you must discuss it, don’t reveal your ideal salary before they do. She mentions a great way to put this on them by saying “Do you have a range in mind for this position?”, as sometimes the range they have in mind may be higher than what you are considering!

5.       Negotiating is about more than salary

If you are applying for a W-2 full time position as an allied health professional, the company may also be providing you with multiple benefits, such as a retirement plan, PTO, continuing education allowance, insurance, etc. In your negotiation, think about these benefits as well!

I had a colleague who negotiated and received an extra week of PTO when she started a new job as part of her negotiation process. What a deal!

6.       Practice!

Like anything new, your first first trial runs may not go as smoothly as you would hope for. As an allied health professional, this may seem very foreign to you to negotiate for your salary. Take the time to practice how you will approach these negotiations! Run through it with a family member, apply for multiple jobs (even if you aren’t interested in them) to work on your negotiating skills, and remember that this eventually will come easier to you with practice.

7.       Accept or reject offers with grace

If you accept an offer, great! Make sure you tell them how much you appreciate this opportunity and taking time out of their busy schedule to consider you for the job.

If you reject the offer, let them down easy. Continue to let them know how much you appreciate them meeting with you and giving you an offer. No need to tell them exactly why you rejected them – you never know if/when you will want to reach out to them in the future.

You chose this allied health profession most likely because you want to help people, and there is nothing wrong with that at all. But just because you entered such a caring profession, does not mean you don’t have the right to negotiate for an increased salary. You are worth it, and you need to remember your worth!

So in conclusion, I would HIGHLY recommend reading the full article from The Financial Mechanic, 7 Tips for Negotiating – How I Doubled My Salary in Two Years. And you can read my blog post on passive income to learn more about another way to increase your income that doesn’t involve negotiating your salary.

So if you want to get started on paying off your debt TODAY, let’s work together to help crush that debt! Click here to sign up for your FREE 20 minute consult.

Note: I am not a certified financial advisor/planner or a certified financial analyst or a CPA or an accountant or a lawyer. Remember, I am an allied health professional, just like you! This website/blog is for entertainment and educational purposes only. Please consult with your financial advisor(s) regarding your personal finance, investment, and tax matters. 

Thanks for reading my latest blog post! I use affiliate links to keep this blog and its content free for you, so I would be so grateful for your support by clicking below!

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Resources:

  1. https://financialmechanic.com/7-tips-for-negotiating-how-i-doubled-my-salary-in-two-years/
  2. https://www.zippia.com/pediatric-occupational-therapist-jobs/best-states/

What is Passive Income?

updated October 6, 2022
Read on to learn about ways to help your money grow for you!

A key part of achieving financial independence is to create passive income streams to allow you to retire from your 9-5 work and live off of passive income. But what does it mean for income to be PASSIVE?

What is Passive Income?

I’ll put this in allied health terms – which is how I understood it better when I first learned about this. When movement is ACTIVE, the patient is moving their body on their own volition and activating their muscles to create the movement, while the allied health professional such as a PT or an OT, sits nearby and watches. When movement is PASSIVE, the patient does no work, and the PT/OT places their hands on the desired body parts and moves it for the patient, allowing the patient to lay back and relax.

Now if you’re the patient, what sounds better to you?

Bringing it back to how this relates with income, you want your income to come in without you lifting a finger at the time the money is coming in. You want to be the patient in this scenario!

Is Passive Income Totally Passive?

Not quite. Sure, passive income streams require some work on the front end. But once you put in that work on the front end, you can ride it out for as long as you please. Passive income allows you to let money for you while you sit on the beach in the Caribbean on a Wednesday in January.

What are Examples of Passive Income?

Here are some of my favorite examples of passive income:

Long Term, Low Cost Index Funds

I love index funds so much as a form of passive income. You can read more about them from my earlier blog post by clicking here.

In a nutshell, index funds are mutual funds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that are designed to track the performance of stock market (or bond market) indices such as Dow Jones, NASDAQ, and the S&P 500.1 

The philosophy behind index funds is that this type of investment allows you to pay low fees, brings diversification of a few asses classes, to which you hold onto for the long term.

Plus, it also allow you to not worry about spending your precious time researching different stocks, and having to pick and choose which ones you think will do well.

High Yield Savings Accounts

I am also a big fan of the good ol’ HYSA – read more about it in this blog post. It’s not a ton of money coming your way, but it’s way more than the low APY your average brick and morter bank is giving you.

While a traditional savings account has a 0.01% APY (eww), HYSA’s have on average around a 0.5% APY (yay!). When you take compound interest into consideration, you can rest assured your money is not losing its value over time.

Cash Back Rewards Cards

I only advocate credit cards if you are a responsible spender with ZERO consumer debt. But if you are, take advantage of some awesome credit cards that have cash back rewards.

I personally love my Costco Anywhere Visa, since we shop at Costco all the time, including gas. With cash back rewards of 4% on gas, 3% on restaurants and travel, 2% on Costco, and 1% on literally everything else, it is definitely worth it for us. But do your research, and find what cash back rewards cards would work best for you and your situation!

E-Printables and Digital Downloads

I am not a graphic designer by any means. But I started my own Etsy store, The Great Cardsby, where I create digital downloads of beautiful scenery that I’ve stumbled upon during my travels. I love traveling, and I want to share my travels with the world, and what better way to also make some money off of it through Etsy?

These digital downloads are sent to the customer immediately after purchase, so you don’t have to do any work once you’ve put it on your site. Plus, this gives the customer more freedom to choose the size and printer that they would like to use for their download. I always find it fun when I’m on vacation and I see in my email that I made some money off of one of my Etsy store collections!

Real Estate Investing

So real estate investing takes a good amount of planning and research to do correctly. But whether you decide to do buy-and-hold, short term, or medium term rental properties, it’s a great way to make passive income down the line! For us, we took Paula Pant’s Your First Rental Property Course, because we knew NOTHING about how to invest in real estate. And honestly, taking this course was the best decision we had ever made! It gave us the education we needed to make sure we invested in real estate the right way.

Affiliate Marketing

This is one of the main ways I started making my money off of this blog! My first two affiliates, Student Loan Planner and Trusted HouseSitters, give me special links that I put in my blog posts. Since access to my blog is free, affiliate marketing gives me the chance to make some money off of your visit, because when you click on that special link and purchase something from them, I get a percentage of the cut. I just have to remember to put the links in when I post my blog!

Website with Online Advertising

So I’m still working on this aspect of my website, but having advertisements on your website is a great way to make some cash on the side, and this is even easier than affiliate marketing. Every time you get someone to visit your site, if they see the ad, you get paid. And sometimes, if they click on the ad, you may get paid more! I will edit this post and have more details once I figure this out more on my end. Be patient with me, I’m still new at this blog thing 🙂

As you can see, some of these ideas do take some time on the forefront to get started. But once you set these up, you’ll see how easy it is to make passive income whenever you want.

And there are so many other forms of passive income! I selected these because I know the most about these, but I would love to hear more ideas. Comment below with ways you make passive income!

  1. Vicki Robin, Your Money or Your Life, Revised edition (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2018)

Like what you read? Check out some of my other most clicked blog posts!

If you want one-on-one mentoring in your finances, let’s work together to help you on your personal finance journey! Click here to sign up for your FREE 20 minute consult.

Note: I am not a certified financial advisor/planner or a certified financial analyst or a CPA or an accountant or a lawyer. Remember, I am an allied health professional, just like you! This website/blog is for entertainment and educational purposes only. Please consult with your financial advisor(s) regarding your personal finance, investment, and tax matters. 

Thanks for reading my blog! I use affiliate links to keep this blog and its content free for you, so I would be so grateful for your support by clicking below!

  • Student Loan Planner works with you to help customize a plan to most efficiently pay off your student debt! Click here to book your free consult today!
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